Lynn's Legacy is a Love2D port of a Zelda-like game written originally by indie game developers cha0s and Josiah Tobin. It features improved compatibility with modern 64 bit Windows machines, full screen crisp retro graphics with vsync, and bug fixes. The latest Windows 64 build can be downloaded from itch.io: https://gradualgames.itch.io/lynns-legacy
Lynn's Legacy was originally written in FreeBASIC, and the Win32 binary and source code can still be found at sourceforge: https://sourceforge.net/projects/lynn/
It is a very well made adventure game with a compelling sci-fi story, dark atmosphere, great graphics and excellent music. I spent a lot of time in my youth in the 90's trying to make an RPG in QBasic, and the fact this game was made in FreeBASIC (which is an open source BASIC compiler that features compatibility with QBasic) kind of gives me nostalgia both for those days as well as for it being an homage to the Zelda franchise. I don't want to see it lost to history, hence the purpose of this project is to preserve this excellent game for years to come.
Q. Since the source code is still available, and FreeBASIC is still maintained and has a 64 bit version, why not just fix up the original codebase?
A. That's a very good question. I have spent quite a lot of time trying to do this. I actually was able to get the game to compile with the win32 version of the FreeBASIC compiler, but then it crashes very soon after the splash screen. At the same time, I simply enjoy making game engines and working with frameworks like Love2D, so it seemed like a more pleasant, if longer path, towards getting the game running. Plus, as far as I can tell, FreeBASIC cannot work in fullscreen with crisp pixels anymore, so I would have had to roll my own solution for this either way. At the end of the day, the project exists for my pleasure in programming and my desire to preserve the game.
This is a Love2D project. So to run the code, you will need to install LÖVE: https://love2d.org/ The language is Lua.
The original FreeBASIC source code and win32 installer is included in the repository for convenience.
Also, the map data was originally zlib compressed. I had some trouble getting zlib to work with lua, but I was able to run the map files through a utility called offzip (also included in the repository). The uncompressed map files are in data/map. The original, compressed map files are in data/mapc if we decide we want to move back to using zlib. The difference in compressed size is likely not to be very relevant to a modern user, only making a difference in about 5 mb of disk space.
I've been inspired by this game since 2007. As far back as 2013 I was already thinking about porting this game to another platform. It has been quite a rollercoaster getting to where I am with the project today. In 2019, I got this Love2D port going but only got as far as loading assets with very little actual game logic ported. Then my wife left me and I put the project on indefinite hiatus. Thanks to Covid-19, I resuscitated the project in 2020 and really dug in and got the project truly off the ground, after a very emotional few days of trying and failing to get the game to compile in its original language on an up to date version of FreeBASIC. The path I've chosen of a full port is a little bit nutty, but as it turns out I really enjoyed myself like I have assembled an enormous jigsaw puzzle, and exercised my ability to read code by other people and understand it.